VW labor reps to seek works council at U.S. plant

WilliamBoston

BERLIN-- Volkswagen AG labor representatives in Germany are launching a new drive to create a German-style works council at its Chatanooga factory, despite a defeat for the United Auto Workers union at the Tennessee plant.

In a landmark 712-626 vote on Friday, VW workers in Chattanooga rejected U.A.W.'s efforts to unionize the plant.

"We have always stressed that the decision over union representation lies in the hands of the workforce in Chattanooga," said Gunnar Kilian, secretary-general of VW's works council in Germany, in a statement. "The result of the election has not changed our goal of creating a works council in Chattanooga."

The run-up to the election in Chattanooga revealed a paradox. While a majority of VW's U.S. workers reject union representation, blaming U.A.W. for the malaise of Detroit's big three car makers, a large number favor in-house representation by a works council.

"We know from many discussions with our colleagues in Chattanooga that there is great interest on the part of workers to establish worker representation inside the plant," said Mr. Kilian.

Before the election in Chattanooga, U.S. labor experts said that U.S. law only allows creation of a works council in a company that is represented by a trade union. There is no provision in U.S. law for a German-style works council, which is made up of company employees elected by the workforce and has a say in everything from hiring and firing staff to plant operations.

Many of Germany's largest companies adhere to so-called co-determination, a system that grants the workforce and labor unions sweeping powers to jointly manage the companies. The system of worker influence is credited in Germany with preventing strikes and allowing management and the workforce to find a consensus on big changes, such as layoffs and plant closures.

VW has established a works council at all of its foreign plants with the exception of Chattanooga and its plants in China.

The most direct route to creating a works council would have been for workers to accept U.A.W. representation. But now VW's German works council officials are looking for a way to get around U.S. law that appears to require union representation to create a works council.

Mr. Kilian and Frank Patta, another Wolfsburg-based works council official who oversees VW's global network of works councils, will fly to the U.S. in two weeks to begin talks with the American labor law experts to see if there is a way to establish a works council in Tennessee within the framework of U.S. law.

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